Wonderful
by butterflie
Summary: He often dreamed about what it would be like if Auron were to go away.


Author's Notes: Written for 50episodes at livejournal, in which you write a scene or segment of a fic based on a theme.

Wonderful  
by: butterflie

For the first two years, they were strangers. They lived in the same place, shared the same rooms, breathed the same air--occasionally they even spoke to one another. But they didn't know each other.

Tidus didn't actually care. He didn't _like_ Auron. Auron was big and mean and wouldn't let him get away with the things his mother used to let him get away with. And sometimes Auron would get mad at nothing at all, and even though he was _quiet_ mad he was still scary.

Tidus mostly just wished that Auron would go away back to where he came from, even if it meant that he'd be left all alone. He used to be scared of being alone. That was before he met Auron. After he met Auron, it didn't seem so bad anymore. He didn't want to live with Auron.

He often dreamed about what it would be like if Auron were to go away. He'd get to live in the houseboat alone and do whatever he felt like, with no stupid adults to tell him what to do. He could stay up as late as he wanted without being told to go bed. He could eat whenever instead of at silly "mealtimes." He'd never _ever_ have to go to school or do homework again, and could stay home all day practicing blitzball.

Really, the thought of being alone sounded wonderful. He couldn't wait until he was all grown up and could _choose_ to be alone, since he wouldn't need Auron to take care of him. Perhaps when he was... oh, say thirteen. Surely he'd be grown up by thirteen, right?

Then came the morning when he woke up and there was no Auron. He ran all around the houseboat, and even went outside, but there was no sign of his guardian. He was... alone. Just like he'd always wished for.

It was great. At least at first. He ate ice-cream for breakfast, and when he accidentally ate too much of it and got sick, there was no Auron to force a nasty-tasting potion down his throat. Really, those potions tasted worse than the aftertaste from getting sick.

But the annoyance of getting sick was easily made up for, as he decided to use it as an excuse to skip school for the day. Instead, he headed outside to the ocean with blitzball in hand, ready for a full day of practice. And there was no Auron to make him wait thirty minutes before going in the water.

He only went inside near dusk, when the growling of his stomach forced him to acknowledge the hunger he'd been feeling for the past few hours. It had been a great practice, he was really starting to improve a lot. He couldn't wait until he was good enough to play on a team and show the rest of Zanarkand how much better he was at blitz than his old man.

Briefly, he wondered where Auron was. It wasn't that he missed him or anything, of course he didn't, it was just very unusual for Auron to be gone so long. And he'd never gone anywhere before without saying anything first.

Well, he didn't care where Auron was. He was alone just like he wanted, and Auron could stay away for a long, long time as far as he was concerned. He went into the kitchen to find something to eat, but nearly everything he found required cooking, and he didn't know how to cook. He frowned. He was left with a choice of ice-cream or crackers, and after the fiasco of the morning, ice-cream didn't really seem all that appealing. Annoyed, he snatched the box of crackers and headed to his room. If Auron had been there, he could have cooked them something to eat...

Auron wasn't there, though, and even if it meant crackers for supper he was still glad. Auron was a pain. If Auron was there, he wouldn't be able to stay up late reading his blitz books, because Auron would make him put them away and turn out the lights. There was no Auron to make him do that, and so he stayed up until he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore, and he didn't bother to get up and turn his lights off first. There was no Auron to lecture him on the need for saving money and only using things when necessary.

Two days later, he was still alone. He was still trying to cling to the stubborn notion that being alone and Auron-less was great, but the truth was, he was getting hungry. He'd finished the crackers and ice-cream yesterday afternoon, and though he was now willing to try and cook something, he didn't really know how to go about it. He'd never bothered to watch Auron before, and he'd been too little to really remember his mom cooking.

He was also starting to get a bit scared, though he'd never admit it to anyone. Auron had been gone a _really long time_, and that wasn't like Auron at all. He had no idea where Auron was, and he had no idea what he would do if Auron never came back. He'd thought the idea of being alone sounded great, and it _had_ been kind of fun at first, but he was starting to finally realize what Auron had told him a million times before--he wasn't yet ready to live on his own.

He wished now that he hadn't insisted so hard that he'd be perfectly fine if Auron went away and left him alone. No money, no food, no cooking skills... probably plenty other things that Auron did to keep them going that he didn't even know about.

He burrowed deeper under the covers, burying his face in his pillow. He didn't want to cry--_not a crybaby_!--but he was scared and finally sick of being alone. As much as it annoyed him to realize it, he wanted Auron. Auron would make things right. Auron would make him food so that he wouldn't go hungry, and Auron would take care of him when he was sick, and would remember to turn off lights so they wouldn't run out of money. Auron would find things for him to do when he got bored of blitzball, and heal his injuries when he got hurt.

Auron would keep him from being alone.


End file.
